Wow, it’s almost hard for me to believe that my anime blog has been cranking out two entries per week for an entire year! I first got fanatically into anime in December 2010, then just a couple of months later Otaku Haiku was born as a way to document my journey. On some counts it feels like I only began this blog yesterday, but at the same time it feels like I’ve loved anime for forever because I’ve so thoroughly immersed myself in it. Then again, I think it was pretty clear that I was always meant to be an anime fangirl. The otaku gene has always been in my DNA, I just needed the proper outlet to funnel my obsessive tendencies!

My current anime DVDs (plus one live action film). Not too shabby for a fledgling collection, imho.

By my count, at this point, I have watched 37 complete seasons of anime shows, 75 first anime episodes, 16 anime movies, and 2 Kdramas. I’ve read 33 volumes of manga, and discovered something close to 161 Japanese musicians, mostly through anime theme songs. (My iTunes claims 166, but I know that there are a few doubles here and there.) At the moment I’m in the midst of watching 7 anime series and 1 Kdrama, but there are at least 13 series that I stopped for one reason or another and am very eager to return to. It seems that I watch most of my anime via Anime Network On Demand or online streaming, but I have a Netflix queue a mile long that I really need to pay more attention to.

My Sebby swag. Most were gifts, believe it or not! You can just barely see the corner of my awesome Black Butler wall scroll as well.

Black Butler is my favourite anime of all, hands down, no question. However, if we’re going by my favourite genres, Darker Than Black is my supernatural noir of choice, Ouran High School Host Club is my fav shoujo, Princess Jellyfish is my pick for anime aimed at non-teenagers, and for horror I just can’t decide between Hell Girl and Pet Shop of Horrors. When it comes to anime I don’t care for, several first episodes turned my stomach, but Mahoromatic probably wins for least fav anime series that I actually managed to finish watching. Maria Holic was the biggest disappointment thus far, as I loved the first episode but wanted to bang my head against the wall by the last episode of the second season. Guin Saga is the series that most surprised me, as I thought that it was hideous at first but then grew to kind of love it by the end. And if I could only recommend one anime series to a random non-anime fan, I would choose Darker Than Black, because it’s just so awesome overall that I honestly can’t imagine anyone not enjoying it.

My manga volumes to date. Y'know, I feel that my taste in anime is pretty diverse, but when it comes to manga, it's obvious that shoujo is my clear preference.

Choosing a favourite manga would be quite difficult, as I dearly love all of the ones that I’ve read up to now. I think that I read Vampire Knight the fastest (eleven volumes in less than 48 hours) but Alice in the Country of Hearts is the number one series that I just couldn’t put down. (Thank you, Yen Press, for picking up where Tokyopop failed and releasing the final volume this June!!!) I don’t know that I could choose my favourite anime music, as there’s just so much good stuff out there. I will say that the Pet Shop of Horrors soundtrack by Kazuhisa Yamaguchu & Ichirou Imai, as well as the Black Box collection by Taku Iwasaki, are my most played anime albums. And I will always love Trinity Blood for introducing me to one of my newest and most fervent musical obsessions, BUCK-TICK, and their stunningly sexy song “Dress.”

And those are my stats at this time! I dearly love this blog and could quite happily update it five times a week, but since I’m trying to accomplish more creative writing this year, I’ve decided to only post once a week from hence forth. That way I can take the time to finish more series between posts, which will lead to writing more quality entries, and I can (hopefully) more fully participate in the blogging community at large. I’d like to thank all who have been reading and commenting and recommending series for me to try. There’s still so much out there, but it’s quite exciting, and I can’t wait to embark on a second year of anime adventures!

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I spy Princess Tutu in your collection. Have you watched it yet? I’m irrationally biased towards it– I think it was my personal best anime of last decade. I could go into a long dissertation about why I think so highly of it, but I think of it as being the anime artistic equivalent of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s great 1948 film, “The Red Shoes”.

I haven’t watched it yet, but I’m very much looking forward to doing so. I saw it on sale at Right Stuf this past December, and though I usually watch at least one episode before purchasing a series, I just took the plunge with this one. The excellent reviews were enough to sway me, but I also took ballet for thirteen years, so I figured I had to add it to my collection.

You comparing it to “The Red Shoes” just puts it over the top. I love that movie (despite how anti-feminist the ending is, it’s still a very beautiful and powerful film) as I’m kind of a sucker for anything ballet-related. As soon as I’m finished with the current crop of shows that I’m watching, Princess Tutu is next on my list.

And thank you very much for the congrats! 😀 When I began I never imagined how much time I’d devote to this blog, but I really do enjoy writing the entries. If you ever start your own, please let me know. One of my goals is to read and participate in more blogs myself. And thank you for reading and responding! I appreciate your comments and suggestions very much. 🙂

Congratulations! I like that you extended this post into telling us a little about your anime history. It’s also interesting to see others’ anime collections – ours don’t overlap for a single DVD, I don’t think!

Do you use Anime Planet or MAL? These are fun and easy ways to keep track of the series you’ve seen.

Thank you so much! 😀 Yeah, I love browsing through other people’s collections, especially when we share a common interest. Heh, that is funny, though not too surprising, as my collection is still relatively small. And I still need to check out several of the bigger titles in anime, like Bleach (which has been in my Netflix queue for a year, I think!).

I don’t use either of those sites, and in fact have never heard of them, but I’ll definitely check them out now. I already catalogue my music and books online, so doing the same with anime would be right up my alley. 😉 Thank you for reading, commenting, and suggesting!